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802.11

IEEE 802.11 comprises a set of standards for wireless LAN (WLAN) operation.

802.11s

802.11s is a draft amendment to the existing 802.11 standards documents to support mesh networking between WLAN nodes. It supports unicast and multicast routing, and RF-aware dynamic routing using a new dynamic routing protocol dubbed Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP).

There is some support in the mac80211 stack in the Linux kernel to support an all-software implementation of 802.11s dubbed open8021s.

It is present in kernel 2.6.32 and above, and is backported through the wireless-testing git tree. [Citation Needed]

Hardware requirements for open80211s

A WLAN adapter that has a driver written for the mac80211 framework. Consult the Driver Table to check that it also supports "mesh" as an interface type.

Recommended computers

Soekris computers with miniPCI slots. These are fairly open, low-power, x86 computers. They're produced in relatively small production runs so they can be somewhat expensive.

Ubiquiti RouterStation. A low-power, MIPS computer for WISP applications. Produced at scale, and relatively inexpensive.

RouterBoard are low-power, mostly Atheros-based MIPS computers made by WISP supplier MicroTik. Produced at scale and relatively inexpensive.

XR1. A 180-280 MHz VHF adapter that might be able to be modified for use in amateur radio spectrum. Supports 5 MHz channels.

Ubiquiti Networks Atheros-based radio systems

Bullet are ruggedized radio systems that are powered over PoE and have an integrated N connector. 1 watt TXPO.

Example: configuring an open80211s network under Linux using mac80211_hwsim

There exists a testing driver in the mac80211 stack in Linux in recent kernels that will create simulated 802.11 devices so that one can test mesh networking even if they don't have proper adapters yet. It creates a configurable number of adapters (default is 2) that will shuttle frames between adapters that are tuned to the same frequency.

Before beginning, make sure that you have a recent version of the "iw" utility, as the netlink interface to mac80211 is under constant development.